"First time using it." Gan Jin's fingers gently stroked the chessboard: ...I only have four teams of logistics personnel. If they just provide support behind the main force as a reserve, the effect won't be significant, so I wanted to take a gamble. I knew that was strategic high ground. I originally just intended to move up there to harass Teacher's army, making you think our main force had arrived, thus forcing you to readjust your deployment..."

Nanmen Xiangrong nodded repeatedly, a trace of caution and coldness gradually creeping into the corners of his eyes: "I know. You treat this like a game of chess, don't you? If all forty of your men were living people, your friends, and you could trade their lives to save your surviving comrades, would you still lead them to do this?"

Nanmen Xiangrong's low voice echoed in the classroom. All the soldier cadets who had been admiring Gan Jin suddenly felt a chill, lowering their heads to ask themselves if they would truly act that way on a real battlefield. Leading comrades and friends with whom they shared life and death, whom they could trade lives for—knowing it was a suicide mission, would they still make them go?

The hand sliding across the chessboard paused slightly for Gan Jin. If this were truly a battlefield, and he, as the leader of the logistics corps...

"Kid, how a person behaves the first time they use this wargame truly reflects their character," Nanmen Xiangrong descended from the podium and stood before Gan Jin, speaking plainly. "You only have four logistics teams, yet you pushed forward lightly equipped. Perhaps you think you are just playing, that it doesn't matter. In reality, this reflects your inner unwillingness to give up, your refusal to admit defeat, no matter the circumstances."

"Unwilling to lose..." Gan Jin chewed on Nanmen Xiangrong's words, and his mind suddenly cleared. He truly disliked losing! Even without awakening his bloodline power, he still desired the path of a warrior; it was simply that he didn't want to lose to those who had activated theirs!

"Refusing to yield, refusing to admit defeat, not wanting to lose." Nanmen Xiangrong paced slowly down the path between the two rows of desks. "This is your inner true thought. Daring to take risks is also deeply rooted in your subconscious. But as a General... a Commander..."

Nanmen Xiangrong turned to look at Gan Jin, raising his right hand and gently shaking his index finger side to side: "You are not qualified! Soldiers are born for war, but not born to die. On the battlefield, you might contribute greatly to the war effort but perish, while others survive to manage the conflict. The General commanding it will not remember you."

"The status and merit you gain by sacrificing your subordinates' lives in war, outsiders might not see. But..." Nanmen Xiangrong's small eyes suddenly blazed with the light of a sharp sword, his gaze seeming capable of piercing flesh, causing Gan Jin's body to tremble slightly, reminiscent of the sharp, electric aura of Teacher Enlake in the Endless World.

"Your surviving comrades, every other soldier can see it! They will no longer help you!" Nanmen Xiangrong laughed coldly. "A commander has an obligation to win the war, but a commander also has an obligation to minimize casualties among his soldiers. When you value victory over the lives of your own soldiers, what difference are you from a butcher?"

"This is a Military Academy! This is not a slaughterhouse." Nanmen Xiangrong swept his gaze across every cadet present. "If one day you leave this academy and enter the Human-Demon Battlefield, and become a commander who only pursues victory regardless of your soldiers' lives, then discard the graduation certificate from the Conquest Academy! If you cannot accept this philosophy, then go to another academy!"

"...As if..." Nanmen Xiangrong's face twisted into a cold, contemptuous sneer. "The glorious Shen Du War College, producing famous generals!"

The classroom was so quiet you could hear everyone's breathing. All the students were bowing their heads in deep thought over Nanmen Xiangrong's words. The usually stoic Muye Tiance uncharacteristically closed his folding fan, watching Nanmen Xiangrong with an expression of appreciative respect.

"I cannot..." Gan Jin suddenly looked up at Nanmen Xiangrong and shook his head gently. "If that wasn't a wargame just now, but a real war, I couldn't have done it..."

Nanmen Xiangrong patted Gan Jin's shoulder. "Next time, don't treat this place like a wargame. This is the battlefield! At the end of any war, only those who survive are recorded—that is what they call a famous general! Only when the unit structure remains intact will it become a renowned legion! Units that vanish while turning the tide of war will be ruthlessly purged."

Gan Jin looked down at the chessboard in contemplation. If that were the case, with only four logistics teams in hand, what should he do? Stay in the rear? Watch the other warriors fight and die on the Human-Demon Battlefield?

No! Gan Jin suddenly lifted his head with force. "Teacher, this is just a wargame."

Nanmen Xiangrong, walking toward the classroom door with his hands behind his back, paused mid-stride, slowly drew his leg back, turned, and stared silently at Gan Jin.

The quiet atmosphere in the classroom felt oppressive; some cadets even wanted to whisper to Gan Jin to apologize to the teacher first—this tension was too agonizing.

One second... two seconds... five seconds... fifteen seconds... one minute...

Nanmen Xiangrong silently turned and slowly walked out of the classroom. The crowd immediately felt an inexpressible sense of release, yet it wasn't complete. It was as if a stone weighing a hundred bi had been resting on their chests, and now it had been reduced to fifty jin.

Even though the teacher had left, his silent gaze, like stone, still weighed heavily on everyone's chests. Li Lizago looked at Gan Jin's retreating figure, smiled faintly, and shook his head repeatedly. It seemed he had merely gotten lucky with that last move. This person fundamentally did not grasp the true essence of the wargame. The chessboard is the battlefield. A true famous general is one who sits in the central command tent, issues orders, and determines the outcome of the war—there is no difference from the chessboard.

Muye Tiance, watching Gan Jin return to his seat and seriously consult the wargame manual, made several tsk-tsk sounds and nodded continuously. "What a confident person."

"Confident?"

Several of Muye Tiance's accompanying cadets looked at him with curiosity.

"Of course, confident," Muye Tiance fanned his face open. "What Gan Jin just said was telling the Teacher: the chessboard is the chessboard, because he is not truly represented on it. The him on the battlefield is absolutely not just a number on a piece that can be calculated clearly. What an interesting person..."

"Interesting, very interesting!" Nanmen Xiangrong walked down the corridor outside the classroom. The gloomy silence from before was gone, replaced by a joyful smile dancing across every wrinkle. Deliberately sacrificing a unit was the wrong approach, but the idea of throwing caution to the wind with logistics troops and advancing quickly was certainly praiseworthy.

"Especially the spirit of 'advance, advance' he showed in combat." Nanmen Xiangrong vigorously waved his arm, which looked like dry wood. "If a General doesn't know how to attack, he's in trouble. And that last sentence, 'The wargame is just war...'..."

"Tsk-tsk..." Nanmen Xiangrong shook his head repeatedly. "Truly filled with confidence! I was only planning to discuss moving him to the Command Department with the Principal; now I must strongly request it. Although command appears very risky, if an army lacks an adventurous commander, does that army have vitality? A regular warrior, mixing among bloodline warriors with superior personal strength, what future can he have?"

"If he can maintain this state..." Nanmen Xiangrong stroked his chin. "He truly has a chance to challenge the top student in the first-year Command Department, that girl Su Muping, who specializes in the 'Extreme Push' school of thought."

"Future prospects..." Gan Jin touched the fine lines on the chessboard. "If Fen Tu Kuang Ge were here, I imagine he would be quite outstanding?"

Li Lizago looked at Gan Jin curiously. If he had truly been relying on luck moments ago, how could he explain the data on those two hundred generals? Could this person really have studied a vast amount of military intelligence? If so... I must find a way to notify my family; I will pay whatever massive price necessary to recruit him as a retainer! With such a retainer... Li Lizago looked thoughtfully at Gan Jin. He would be a great asset on the Human-Demon Battlefield in the future.

"Personal combat strength, general data, and battlefield adaptability." Muye Tiance lightly fanned his fan, looking at the points earned from the recent simulation. The top five were all his retainers. Would this Gan Jin break that streak?

The brief ten-minute break passed, and the next class began: Analysis of Continental War History.

Gan Jin listened intently to the teacher's lecture, nodding gently from time to time. The courses at the Conquest Academy were much more advanced than he had imagined. They didn't just cover famous, well-known major battles; they placed far more emphasis on analyzing smaller engagements within local battle zones.

In this world, not everyone could become a Commander leading an entire army. Most officers led units of ten, twenty, or even a hundred men—the lower-level officers. These officers were the true backbone of any army. No one could guarantee what role the timely reactions of these low-ranking officers would play at a critical moment in a battle to determine the final outcome.

Gan Jin sat in the classroom for the entire morning, absorbing the lessons from various instructors. Some knowledge he had already covered; some was entirely new. Even matters he had seen in past notes were analyzed more thoroughly by these professional teachers, who pooled their collective wisdom. Every lecture offered fresh inspiration or allowed him to cross-reference and deduce further from the records in the Gan family notes.

Gan Jin left the classroom, almost unable to believe this was a War Academy. He had assumed that the warriors here spent their time under the guidance of teachers diligently improving their Dou Qi and fighting techniques.

"Heh heh... I see..." Gan Jin laughed self-deprecatingly. If the goal were merely cultivating personal combat strength, why bother coming to an academy at all? Only the impoverished children of the great families needed to come here; the true scions of those families wouldn't necessarily have worse individual strength training staying at home.